Much of the content that is consumed by individuals is supported, at least in part, through advertising revenue. For example, network television shows, and, even prior to that, radio broadcasts, were funded through the sale of advertising wherein advertisers paid for the right to present advertisements to the audience of such shows and broadcasts. As another example, print media, such as magazines and newspapers, are paid by advertisers to include printed advertisements, with such advertiser payments reducing the amount subscribers of such print media would otherwise have to pay to access the content printed thereon.
Because a diverse set of individuals can consume various content, such as television shows, or newspapers, the advertising included with such content necessarily is exposed to both individuals to whom such advertising is relevant, and individuals that have no interest in the advertised product or service. Additionally, because information about the individuals consuming such content is often unavailable, and because there is no prior knowledge on which individuals will consume which content, it can be difficult to determine beforehand which advertising will be relevant. As a result, individuals have become accustomed to finding advertisements irrelevant for their particular needs and ignoring such advertisements. Indeed, many consumers of advertising-supported content have trained themselves to purposely ignore advertisements; a behavior known as “ad blindness.” For example, readers of newspapers or magazines visually skip over advertisements often without noticing the advertisements sufficiently in order to actually determine whether or not such advertisements are of interest. As another example, watchers of network television shows often perform other actions during displayed advertising, or utilize devices, such as digital video recorders that enable such watchers to fast-forward or skip over advertising without actually considering the advertising content.
From an advertiser perspective, however, such actions are undesirable because they reduce the likelihood of individuals purchasing or using the advertised products or services. To counter such “ad blindness”, advertisers desire to present to users advertisements that more effectively capture users' attention, and are, thereby, more engaging to such users.